From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock

476 Pages·2005·7.95 MB·English

by  Clinton Heylin

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CLINTON HEYlIN I
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An A Cappella Book
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All photographs courtesy of the author's collection unless otherwise noted.
Cover design: Mel Kupfer
Cover photos: (top) Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry-Bob Gruen/Star File;
(bottom) Peter Laughner and Richard Hell-© Leee Childers
Copyright © Clinton Heylin, 1993
New material for this edition copyright © Clinton Heylin, 2005
All rights reserved
Published by A Cappella Books
An imprint of Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-55652-575-9
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface: Credit Where it's Due - the Appropriation of Punk
History xi
Precursors
1 Happiness is a Warm Drone (1961-5) 3
The Theatre ofE ternal Music - The Primitives - The Velvet Underground
2 All the Needles are on Red! (1965-70) 14
Exploding Plastic Inevitable - The Velvet Underground - Nico
3 Energy Freak·Out Freeform (1968-71) 32
MC5 - The Stooges
4 This is the Modern World (1970-73) 44
The Modern Lovers
5 The Underground Jukeboxes (1972-4) 50
Cinderella Backstreet - Mirrors - The Electric Eels
6 Suicide is Painless (1970-73) 65
Suicide
7 Trash! (1971-5) 72
The New York Dolls - ~yne County
vi Contents
The First Wave
8 From Horizontal Arsonists to Neon Boys (1967-73) 93
The Neon Boys
9 Jesus Died for Somebody's Sins •.• (1966-73) 103
Patti Smith
10 The Neon Boys Turn On New York (1973-4) 115
Television
11 The Cadillac Pulls Out of the Graveyard (1974-5) 128
Patti Smith - Television
12 Look Out Cleveland! (1974-5) 142
Mirrors - The Electric Eels - Rocket from the Tombs
13 In the Flesh (1973-5) 155
Blondie
14 Gabba Gabba Hey! (1974-5) 166
The Ramones
The Second Wave
15 Down at the Rock & Roll Club (1974-6) 181
CBGBs - Max's Kansas City - Club 82 - Performance Studio - Mother's
16 This is Radio Ethiopia (1976) 190
Patti Smith Group
17 Living on Chinese Rocks (1975-6) 199
The Heartbreakers
18 The Artistics Come to Town (1975-6) 206
The Artistics - Talking Heads
19 Looking into the Heart of Darkness (1975-6) 216
Rocket from the Tombs - Pere Ubu
20 Fuck Art, Let's Rock! (1972-7) 228
The Dictators - Dead Boys - Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers
Contents vii
21 A Punk·Rocker Parade (1975-6) 239
Punk - Rock Scene - New York Rocker - Hit Parader
No Wave - Goodbye!
22 Instant Sires from Private Stock (1976) 249
Blondie - The Ramones - Talking Heads - Television
Richard Hell 6-the Voidoids - Suicide
23 The Last Adventure (1977-8) 275
Television
24 The Final Wave (1977-9) 275
Patti Smith Group
25 Into the Void (1977-9) 282
Richard Hell 6-the Voidoids - Suicide
26 Doing the Modern Dance (1977-9) 293
Pere Ubu - Friction - Devo
27 Touched by the Presence (1977-80) 308
Blondie - Talking Heads - The Ramones
28 Thrashing at the Waves (1978-80) 317
DNA - The Feelies - The Contortions - Lydia Lunch - The Plasmatics
Postlude: After the Fact/s 323
Appendix 1: A CBGBs Chronology 355
Appendix 2: Bibliography 359
Appendix 3 Dramatis Personae 366
Appendix 4: Discography 373
Index 409